Linguistic Analysis of Swahili Traditional Poetry: A Survey of Phonological Processes in Diwani ya Amri Abedi

Abstract

This article is anchored on the belief that poetry, just like any literary work, uses
language as its medium. Thus, the article analyses poems from a linguistic viewpoint
and diverges from the traditional literary analysis approach. It points out that poets,
in most cases, do comply to linguistic rules or processes of a particular language used
in poems although in several instances they may violate for literary purposes. The
study presents how Amri Abedi complies and violates Swahili language phonological
rules and literary motives for compliance and violation. Generally, the study is a result
of qualitative research that was guided by the generative theory. Data was collected
through text collection, transcriptions, analysis, administration of questionnaires,
and interviews.